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Worth Knowing

For Optus, legal professional privilege is a breach too far

Unless you have been living under a rock with no mobile reception, you will probably be aware that in September 2022, Optus suffered a massive data breach.  As the equitable maxim that “there can be no wrong without a remedy” has been updated for modern Australian conditions to “there can be no data breach without

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May 28
2024
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

SVL in the LSJ – the world’s largest commercial law moot goes online again in 2021 (and SVL is part of it)

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (and its associated competition, the Vis East Moot) both took place online this year (rather than the usual locations of Vienna and Hong Kong).  Amongst the issues which were argued in the moot was the question of whether a party which had agreed to arbitrate before the

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May 14
2021
SVL in the community

After WFH, WTF* for WHS? (*”What Then Follows”, obviously)

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in the US said in a recent decision, “While the law may take periodic naps during a pandemic, we will not let it sleep through one” (and if this is correct in the US, it may explain a report about a Florida judge upbraiding US lawyers for appearing at

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May 10
2020
Work health and safety

What is an employer’s duty of care to a careless employee?

It has long been understood that the obligations of employers to provide a safe system of work are owed “not only to the careful and observant employee, but also to the hasty, careless, inadvertent, inattentive, unreasonable or disobedient employee in respect of conduct that is reasonably foreseeable”.  However, in two recent cases (one a safety prosecution,

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May 26
2019
Litigation and dispute resolution Work health and safety

I feel the need . . . the need for a deed

A lease is a lease is a lease, yes?  Well, not always.  If a lease is expressed to be in the form of a deed, then (amongst other consequences) a party who has signed and delivered the lease cannot withdraw their acceptance and “recall” (or back out of) the agreement to lease the premises, even

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May 16
2019
Litigation and dispute resolution Property Law

From the archive – “No social media policy? “Not sufficient”, says Fair Work Australia”

[Editorial note – this article was first written by Angus in 2012 when he was at DibbsBarker.  As (a) the article is no longer available on the DibbsBarker website, following the demise of that firm and (b) the article still holds up pretty well in 2018, we have republished it for you]  Any employers who

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May 22
2018
Employment Law

Freezing orders against ex-employees – when should employers move in for the chill?

The discovery that a formerly trusted employee has been defrauding their employer throws up a lot of questions.  How could this have happened? Do I have to involve the police?  And sometimes most importantly, am I ever going to see the stolen money again? Freeze a jolly bad fellow (allegedly) The answer to the third

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May 13
2018
Employment Law Litigation and dispute resolution

“The menu, sir? I’m sorry, that’s confidential”

Confidential information can be used (and misused) in lots of different ways. Disputes about use and misuse often arise following the termination of various kinds of contracts (including employment contracts and franchise contracts) which provide for confidential information to be provided by one party to the contract to the other party. If a party is

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May 22
2017
Franchising Law Litigation and dispute resolution

No minor undertaking – the high price of “winning the battle, but losing the war”

What’s better than getting an award of damages to compensate you for your loss?  Well, many things, but “preventing the loss from occurring in the first place” is pretty high up on the list.  It’s for that reason that an early decision which will often have to be made in litigation is whether to seek

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May 1
2017
Litigation and dispute resolution